Why You Can’t Criticize Paradox
Every Neptune-Pluto wave contains a paradox The Hellenization Paradox came about because after Alexander the Great died, his generals split the spoils in a vast territory spanning from Persia to Egypt and places in between. With this came the adoption of Greek ways and intellect. Greek became the linqua franca of its time and Athens became a seat of knowledge. This came as Rome emerged as a power and ended with its total domination of the Mediterranean. Rome venerated Alexander the Great. Many of its leaders took Greek scholarship as the basis of their philosophy.
The paradox comes in when we factor in how Alexander came to power. He and his Macedonian father, Philip, emerged from the ruins of the Peloponnesian War that weakened both Athens and Sparta. 576BcNeptune-Pluto85bc began with the Greek Renaissance (under the triple conjunction of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto). Athens stood as the dominant power, one it was not afraid to exercise, at the expense of its neighbors in very crowded archipelago. Long story short, this lead to a war with Sparta aligned with weaker powers. The Peloponnesian War (~431bc-404bc) ended up diminishing both, creating the vacuum into which stepped the Macedonians.
Greece Lived Through Rome
These developments led to Alexander and the Seleucid Wars that diluted Greek influence, clearing the way for Rome’s dominance of the region. Rome helped spread Hellenization, on which much of Western Civilization grew. For all this to happen, Greece had to wound itself; Greek legacy could only reach its zenith through its self-immolation.
During the 576bc-334bc stretch , Greek arts and philosophy flourished. Anaximander etal led to Socrates, followed by Plato who begat Aristotle, who reportedly served as Alexander’s tutor (both died within a week of each other in 324bc). Greek theater primed the public to the mindset the philosophers put forth. Thucydides created the foundation of history by writing about the war. Greece also passed on the simplified Phoenician alphabet, facilitating communication.
These events cannot be panned as right or wrong. The history is what it is. We can’t see the events, in hindsight, as a mistake. Without this and other paradoxes, the trajectory of history would have been dramatically different. This opinion holds much more weight when we realize that despite their war, Athens and Sparta thwarted Persia’s march west. Rome may not have thrived if Persia had emerged as a Mediterranean power.
Congratulations Tony! In just a few lines you give us a comprehensive, bright and integral perspective of the history of Ancient Greece — and of the implications it had on world history.
Tony, like so many astrologers, you ignore the part that Cyrus (w/Daniel of the Old Testament) did to promulgate astrology — shame on you since the Persian Empire is a manifestation of the Ne/Pl “wave” of 580 BC
No one it seems, reads Greek & Hebrew — Herodotus’s account of Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon & the Daniel “mene mene tekel upharsin” capture the same moment in history
Alexander’s conquests were started by his father, Philip — vindicating Greece for Xerxes incursions 480 BC etc
Persia’ rise and fall is inherent to the Hellenization paradox. Just don’t have room all the time to include every facet of history.